MSP event includes making sales in a time of disruption, market analysis, M&A

Making sales in a time of major disruption is never going to be easy, but there are some ways forward and ideas on how to communicate with customers and prospects when you can’t meet physically. This is the major theme that Tiffani Bova (pictured), author of Growth IQ: Choices that make or break Your Business, ex- VP and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner and currently sales evangelist at Salesforce will develop online at the Managed Services Summit Live online event on June 10th and 11th. John Garratt, IT Europa, reports.

Friday, 22nd May 2020 Posted 4 years ago in by Phil Alsop

She says: “The world is still turning, and deals are still closing. It’s just that most, if not all, buyers are homebound. The litmus test is whether what you’re selling will put your customer in a stronger personal or professional position right now.”

“It’s a salesperson’s job to make sure they add value for customers at each touch point. Keeping deals moving might be as simple as letting your customers know you’re there if they need you,” and she will spell out these themes at the Managed Services Summit Live event.

For the customer’s point of view and what they want from MSPs in the crisis, we turn to Andrew Evers, Group IT Manager at Red Carnation Hotels, in the hardest hit part of the economy – the hospitality sector.

He says: “I hope everyone has had a wake-up call from COVID. Mine has been that there are "goodies" and "baddies", the latter of whom are unsympathetic and chase on day 31, the former of whom have a vested interest in our survival and our development, as I do in their survival and development. Looking at a crowded marketplace today, the MSP I choose will be the one I think I can help, not just the one I think can help me. An interesting revelation.”

And is it all bad news? One MSP can see signs of silver linings: Jason Fry Managing Director at PAV IT Services says that working from an agile angle has really helped customers maximise value from their IT investments recently and adapt and change to different working practices and needs. “Businesses and their employees are having to find new ways of working and the underlying tech needs to support that change rapidly. But it often means changes in working practices as well. We have actually seen some customers achieving greater productivity since lockdown started.” His discussion with IT Europa at the event will look at changes in MSP working practices.

And selective recovery is already under way in the tech M&A market. But the targets are tending to be the smaller companies, while the largest buyers are making strategic moves, looking for technologies and management teams.

Jonathan Simnett, director of Hampleton Partners, the specialists in tech M&A tell IT Europa: “In terms of how things are looking currently, overall we’re seeing very little change in the amount of tech M&A deals being done. Tech deal volumes in the first third of 2020 are on par with both 2019 and 2018.”

He will be explaining the current market position in a short keynote at the Managed Services Summit Live online event on June 10th and 11th, details here https://live.mshsummit.com/

With up-to-date research analysis of the impacts on IT in the various European market sectors for managed services, Nick Mayes, Principal Analyst at PAC, a teknowlogy Group company will give a market update, showing where services are working best in 2020 and what the numbers say.